Nobel Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks, Russian Human Rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva and numbers lawmakers and MEPs are also calling for their release. In an interview on Ekho Moskvy Radio on Wednesday, Russian rock legend Yuri Shevchuk dismissed the piracy charges as ridiculous. “The whole world knows Greenpeace,” he said. “Greenpeace is the organization that helped save the Antarctic. . . and penguins and scientists live there happily. And what about saving whales!”

Earlier today Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said: “A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest. Any claim that these activists are pirates is as absurd as it is abominable. It is utterly irrational, it is designed to intimidate and silence us, but we will not be cowed.” Full statement (2)

Those appearing in front of the Investigative Committee one of the following days are: